To achieve this, the paper is organised as follows. In section 2 we present a review of extant literature in cognitive psychology and signalling theory relevant to brand equity. In this section, we analyse the employment market from a signalling perspective. In section 3, we synthesise this literature and develop a conceptual framework to explain employee-based brand equity. Based on this conceptualization several propositions are derived. In sections 4 and 5, we discuss our research approach and present the findings of preliminary, qualitative research. Finally, in section 6, we conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of our study and directions for further research.